Interior of a Protestant, Gothic Church, with a Gravedigger in the Choir

The church in this picture does not exist. De Witte assembled it in 1669 from motifs of two real ones, the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, and set a small scene in its choir. Near the middle a gravedigger works in an opened section of floor while a man in black looks on. Eminent citizens were still buried inside churches then, under the paving stones, and diamond-shaped boards painted with coats of arms, like the ones on these pillars, were hung up in memory of the dead. In the foreground life carries on. A man in a hat chats with a woman leading a small child by the hand, and a dog wanders in at the left. The panel is only about 45 centimetres high, and the Rijksmuseum also holds its companion piece, a second church interior.